Private revelations

[Lenten_ashes]

One last question haha I’m sorry guys. How do our prayers affect Gods will? How can we pray to get souls out of purgatory for example, if it is Gods unbending will for them to be their for a certain amount of time.

Thanks again. I don’t know where I’d be without CAF and all of it’s awesome users!

It’s good to have a Catholic Christian understanding of the communion of saints and a complete bible which protestants lack. Prayer for the dead is a good thing that we should do as it makes a difference, (see 2 Macc 12:38-46)

The God of Christianity is not unbending. That’s a term I think of when I read of Allah in Islam. (Allah does what he wants and forgives who he wills, etc) With our God, he comes to earth to dwell among His creation and actually cares about how you feel and what troubles you. That’s why we are told to pray w/o ceasing 1 Thessalonians 5:17 - Luke 18:1-8

God has more than one will…most protestants will acknowledge this.

There’s the decretive will, prescriptive and permissive wills. His prescriptive will desires for us to be holy and join him in heaven as His friends. And part of being holy is to follow the commandment to love one another as Jesus has loved us. That would include praying for them, dead or alive. We are all one body:

CCC 962 “We believe in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are being purified, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church; and we believe that in this communion, the merciful love of God and his saints is always [attentive] to our prayers” (Paul VI, CPG § 30).

CCC 1055 By virtue of the “communion of saints,” the Church commends the dead to God’s mercy and offers her prayers, especially the holy sacrifice of the Eucharist, on their behalf.

 

[commenter]

One last question haha I’m sorry guys. How do our prayers affect Gods will? How can we pray to get souls out of purgatory for example, if it is Gods unbending will for them to be their for a certain amount of time.

Thanks again. I don’t know where I’d be without CAF and all of it’s awesome users!

Just want to point out there is no one Protestant response to this question, but that one branch of Protestantism - Calvinism - has a very different interpretation from other Protestants, and from Catholics.

The Catholic response is best summarized in the passages from the CCC, already cited. Keep in mind that while we live in time, God is outside of time. Don’t think the calendars in Heaven show 2016. God did not have to make the universe in such a way as to take in to account our own actions and prayers. He does not “need” us. But He chose to make the universe in such a way as so that does matter. (He did not “need” to inspire any Bible either. But He did. So I read it.)

C. S. Lewis was an Anglican who struggled over this matter (Purgatory and intercession). He came to the conclusion that, properly understood, Purgatory was a blessing for us, to help us get ready. With intercession he was cautiously favorable, us joining in prayers with the dead, not “pulling strings” etc. Personally I feel I am joining in prayers** with** my parents, who may be in purgatory, just as I joined in prayers with them when they were on Earth. And why not?

 

[Potato1237]

Thank you! I get it now.